Portrait of a Free FGM Village in Iraqi-Kurdistan

In remote rural areas, however, ancient traditions often rule. Honour killings, where women are murdered to protect the family’s honour, still occur, and FGM is widespread, in part because it is supported by some clerics who say it is part of sharia or traditional Islamic law.

This could be changing, however.

In Tutakal, the donation of basic school services and a small classroom by a German-funded non-governmental organisation called WADI has helped convince residents to stop the practice.

It is a promising model, activists involved in the campaign to stop FGM say, one they hope will spread to other Kurdish villages. The activists work to convince villagers the practice has no basis in Islam and spread the word that it is now against the law.

“More people understand this is a crime, and they can’t practice it any more, but we still need to implement the law,” said Suaad Sharif, a field worker with WADI. “They say their grandmothers did it, their mothers did it, it was a habit that they had to carry on.”